The president of the United States, Joe Biden, announced this Sunday his decision to withdraw his candidacy for the presidency and will not participate in the elections on November 5, 2024.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve you as your president. And although my intention was to aspire to re-election, I believe that the best thing for the party and for the country is for me to step aside and concentrate on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” he said in the statement published on their social networks.
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Biden, the second Catholic president in US history, added that he will address the country to recount the details of his decision in a speech later in the week.
In your account X (formerly Twitter), Biden also offered his support for his Vice President Kamala Harris to be the nominee for the Democratic Party’s presidential candidacy. “Democrats: It’s time to come together and defeat Trump. Let’s do it,” she stated.
Since last month, the Democratic president has faced growing calls from his party and supporters to drop out of the race amid concerns that he would be unable to serve another four years as president.
Democratic officials and major party donors began sounding alarms after the first 2024 presidential debate last month, in which Biden repeatedly lost the thread and struggled to articulate his vision for the country.
Several Democratic senators called on Biden to withdraw from the race, as did Democratic members of the House of Representatives, such as Adam Schiff of the state of California.
According to some media, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama have also pressured Biden to drop out of the race.
Donors and prominent Democrats have also turned away from the Democratic Party amid fears that Biden remaining in the race could have devastating effects on the other candidates.
Actor George Clooney, who has been raising funds for the Democratic Party for years, declared to the New York Times earlier this month that Democrats “are not going to win in November with this president.”
Clooney urged top Democrats to “call on this president to voluntarily leave” so the party can organize and nominate another last-minute candidate.
Big donors also pulled their money from Democratic campaigns in hopes of forcing Biden out. Filmmaker Abigail Disney said this month that she would suspend all Democratic donations “unless and until they replace Biden at the helm of the ticket.”
On the other hand, the New York Times reported that some big donors were withholding more than $90 million from a Biden super PAC – a political action committee that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to support or defeat candidates – until the president drops out of the race. presidential.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA
Daniel Payne
Daniel Payne is senior editor at Catholic News Agency. He previously worked at College Fix and Just the News. He lives in Virginia with his family.